


Kind of Amazing

by petersnotkingyet



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Coming Out, Kent Parson is happy, M/M, Mentions of homophobia, Outing, but everything is fine, supportive jack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-02
Updated: 2017-01-02
Packaged: 2018-09-14 02:43:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9154996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/petersnotkingyet/pseuds/petersnotkingyet
Summary: Romance on Ice? You’ll Never Guess Which NHL Captain was Caught Kissing a Former Teammate!The thumbnail showed a dark haired man kissing a smaller blond.  Even with the picture as tiny as it was, Jack could recognize the outside of the restaurant.Jack was calling Eric before the article had loaded.





	

The Aces beat the Falconers—again—but this time they were in Providence.  That meant Jack got to take Eric out to dinner after the game, so the loss wasn’t quite as hard to swallow.  Kent had been on fire for the whole game.  He looked a lot better than he had last time the two teams had faced each other.  His playing was cleaner, and he was less reckless with himself.  Even Jack could tell it was more than that though.  Kent just seemed happy.

The restaurant Jack brought Eric to was a recommendation from Marty.  It was nice, but not so fancy that Eric would feel uncomfortable.  After they ordered, Jack went to the restroom.  On his way back to the table, a familiar voice called his name.  Jack froze, trying to convince himself it wasn’t Tater, but Jack couldn’t think of any other scenarios that would involve a Russian man shouting “Zimmboni” in a nice restaurant.

“Oh, hey, Tater,” Jack said, turning around.

“Having dinner with girlfriend?” Tater inquired.  He still hadn’t given up on meeting whoever baked all the pastries Jack was always bringing for the team.

“No, just one of my old teammates,” Jack said.  Tater could easily wander into the other section and see Jack at a table with Bitty.  While he was planning to come out to his teammates soon, that wasn’t how he wanted to do it.  “What about you?”

“Hot date,” Tater said with a grin.

“I didn’t know you were seeing someone,” Jack said, laughing.

Tater nodded proudly.  “Dating for five months.  Long distance is hard though.”  Tater’s cellphone vibrated on the table, and the Russian checked it reflexively.  “Get back to teammate, Zimmboni.  My hot date is here.”

Jack laughed again.  “Alright,” he said.  “See you at practice.”

Back at their table, Eric was scrolling through twitter on his phone.  “I leave you alone for two minutes,” Jack chirped as sat down.  Eric made a face as he put his phone back into his pocket.

“More like five minutes,” Eric said.  “I thought you fell in.”

“Gonna tweet 911, eh?” Jack said.  Eric huffed and mumbled something about Canadians.  “I ran into Tater.  He’s on a date.”

“I didn’t know he had a girlfriend,” Eric commented.  “What’d you tell him you were doing here?”

“Having dinner,” Jack said, “with an old teammate.”

Eric smiled around his straw.  “Not a lie,” he commented as the waiter arrived with their food.

Their dinner was nice, and Jack didn’t see Alexei or anyone else he knew again.  Eric bemoaned not being able to spend the night, but he had to be back in time for practice in the morning.  Jack kissed him outside the restaurant before Eric got into a cab.

The next morning, Jack went on his morning run and showered before settling down to eat an omelet and browse the news on his laptop.  He was almost done eating when he came across an article with the headline _Romance on Ice? You’ll Never Guess Which NHL Captain was Caught Kissing a Former Teammate!_   The thumbnail showed a dark haired man kissing a smaller blond.  Even with the picture as tiny as it was, Jack could recognize the outside of the restaurant they’d eaten at last night.

Jack was calling Eric before the article had loaded.

“Eric?” Jack said.  His voice was shaking.

“Jack, honey!” Bitty said.  He sounded drowsy still.  He must have just been getting up for practice.  “I just saw the pictures.  Is Kent okay?  Have you talked to Alexei yet?”

“What?” Jack said.

The article had loaded now.  The picture from the thumbnail was the first image, and Jack see it better now.  It was definitely the restaurant he and Eric had been at last night, but the picture wasn’t them.  The height difference wasn’t quite right.  The blond man’s hair was a little too curly.  The dark haired man’s nose was a little too prominent.  Jack scrolled down without bothering to read the article.  The second picture was clearly Kent Parson and Alexei Mashkov staring lovingly at each other over a table covered with pasta.  The next picture was Tater laughing while Kent tried to get wine off of his shirt.  The fourth was both of them laughing.

“Jesus, that scared me,” Jack said.  “The first picture-”

“Looked like us,” Eric finished.  “I know.  I almost wish it was.  At least I know we’re already in the process of coming out.”

“Yeah,” Jack agreed.  He and Kent were on better terms than they used to be, but they hadn’t had a personal conversation in years.  He had no idea how Kent would take being outed.  “Do you think they’ve seen yet?”

“Probably,” Eric said.  “The Aces are on a plane back to Vegas right now.”

“Right,” Jack said.  “I’ll call Tater first.”

“Okay, honey,” Eric said.  “I’m going to send them both a pie.”

Jack couldn’t help but smile.  “Bye, Eric.”

“Bye.  Love you.”

“Love you too.”

Tater picked up right when Jack was sure he was going to go to voicemail.  “Hello, Zimmboni,” he greeted.  He sounded too cheerful.

“Have you seen the article about you and Kent?” Jack said.  He was sure there was more than one by now, but he couldn’t even bring himself to read the first one.

To Jack’s surprise, Tater laughed.  “Yes,” he said.  “People are very sneaky with cameras in America.  Kenny had too much wine.”

“And you’re… okay?” Jack asked.

“Yes,” Tater said.  “Propaganda fines at home are not so bad with NHL salary.  But PR will not be happy.”

“George won’t mind,” Jack said a little too fast.  Tater laughed again.  He was always like that.  Jack had never really seen Tater upset off the ice.  Instinctively, Jack knew Tater was exactly the type of person Kent needed.

“You are supposed to come out in nice, polite press conference,” Tater said.  “Not kissing wine-drunk boyfriend after he beats you in hockey game at your own stadium.  Georgia will mind, but not the boyfriend.”

“She didn’t mind my boyfriend,” Jack said before he could stop himself.  “I have a boyfriend, not a girlfriend.  He’s the teammate I was having dinner with last night.”

“I know, Zimmboni,” Tater said.  “I know you would tell me when ready.  And I know I talk loud, so I always say ‘girlfriend’ or ‘baker.’”

“Well, Eric is sending pies to you and Kent,” Jack said.

“Very good!” Tater said.  “I will be looking forward to pie!  I have to go now.  I am meeting Georgia soon.”

“Alright,” Jack said.  “Good luck.  Bye.”

“Goodbye, Zimmboni.”

After hanging up with Tater, Jack typed out a text to Kent, whose number was still saved as Parse.  He read over it five times before sending it.  Then, as an afterthought, he sent another: _I know this probably isn’t how you wanted it to go, but I’m really happy for you and Tater._

Several hours later, when Aces were back in Las Vegas and Kent had driven home, he called Jack.  They talked for nearly an hour, and only ten minutes of that were about what happened the previous night.  Jack told Kent about Eric, and Kent talked about the year he and Alexei had spent playing together for the Aces.

That night, Jack saw another article about Kent and Tater.  This time, the picture along with it was from Kent’s Instagram.  Kent and Alexei were leaning in over their table, both red-checked and grinning goofily.  Jack could see Tater’s arm stretched out to get both of them in the picture and the edge of the wine stain on Kent’s shirt.  The caption was a concise paragraph.

_Figured I’d share the only picture from last night that was taken with any type of consent.  This is my boyfriend Alexei.  We’ve been dating for five months.  He’s kind of amazing._

Jack made an Instagram account just to like the post.


End file.
